


the heaviest object tips the scales

by ThinkingCAPSLOCK



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Blood, Character Study, Death, F/F, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-30
Updated: 2013-12-30
Packaged: 2018-01-06 19:44:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,569
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1110787
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThinkingCAPSLOCK/pseuds/ThinkingCAPSLOCK
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It isn't a balancing act anymore.</p>
            </blockquote>





	the heaviest object tips the scales

**Author's Note:**

  * For [renegadeMaverick](https://archiveofourown.org/users/renegadeMaverick/gifts).



Terezi makes one kill the entire night.

She drags the lifeless body to their meeting place. A stream of sticky, mustard blood follows their every moment, dripping from the corpse. His horns, long and winding, snag on the brush. Terezi hauls him forward, cane, blade out, in one hand, a broken leg in the other.

Her teeth clink as she walks. Step one, step two, clink. She wants to laugh, but doesn't want to tire herself out before she gets to the cave. Vriska will want to share stories first, recount how the game went down in vast detail even though Terezi already knew. Vriska will want to brag about her killings and manipulation in person, after all.

(If her wins are justified this time.)

Terezi pushes the thought from her mind as she spots the entrance of their meeting cave. Its outline is traced with the green and purple hues from the twin moons, spilling inside and meeting the shadows. After another tug and another snag on the underbrush, both Terezi and her victim crest the hill.

The smell of blood means Vriska is already there. The way it overpowers, even from where Terezi stands, means that there are a lot more bodies than there should be. Terezi grips onto the leg, onto her cane, her knuckles aching from the strain. 

(There is art to judgment, and it is necessary. The balance of the scales has form and shape. Each piece of evidence adds another layer, a new colour, a new angle and thought and a new strand of beauty. She watches the scales shift in her mind with a careful eye. What is killing without it?)

She doesn't clink her teeth. She swallows her prepared laughter and stories and inhales the stench a second time.

Vriska sits on a dead troll, her cloak carefully spread away from the blood, her hat neatly placed on her knee and ratty as ever. She sports a cocky grin and picks at her nails. When Terezi drops the leg she tows, Vriska looks up. Her grin spreads wider. 

Terezi made one kill the entire night. One just, lawful execution. Vriska used to do the same.

(Just like how she used to care about more than just the game.)

"Redglare!" she greets, her feet slamming the ground as she straightens. Her hat falls onto the dirty, bloody floor. Vriska's grown taller than Terezi this past sweep and she likes to show it off whenever she can. Her half inch tower isn't extremely intimidating, especially with clumps of leaves in her bangs. 

For a moment, Terezi considers whipping off her glasses and giving a retort. Then she breathes in again.

"Vriska-" she begins, and is cut off with a huffy sigh.

"It's Mindfang, remember? I didn't just get this cloak on for nothing! In case you forgot, I'm-"

"I remember," Terezi interjects, forestalling the list of stats and back story for a few moments longer. She does remember. This isn't there first rendezvous after a successful campaign; this isn't the first time Vriska has taken any chance to recite her knowledge. 

(The bodies are beginning to get hard to ignore.)

Terezi shifts on her feet, the cane in her hand feeling heavy. She drives the tip into the ground to relieve some pressure.

"Mindfang," she starts again. Vriska's grin twitches. Her eyes narrow. Terezi continues. "What exactly are you up to? I thought you promised that you'd be discerning this time!"

Vriska rolls her eyes. Her arms cross on her chest. "I was! This wasn't even everyone I encountered. I made sure to be veeeeeeeery selective."

Vriska has tells when she lies. Little twitches on her face, little shifts in her weight. Terezi knows them all. Vriska shows them as she speaks. She didn't even try and hide her movement to her right foot or her forceful suppressing of a smirk. Everything about her statements reeked that they were intentional. 

She is daring Terezi. 

(For so long, Terezi has left it there and jumped back to teasing and joking. She lets the air reek and burn around them and describes, in detail, her process. She lets Vriska walk away with a laugh, trolls behind her. She lets Vriska tip the scales in her own favour.)

Terezi takes the dare. 

She straightens her back and pulls her cane up from the ground, pointing the blade at Vriska's throat. Her arm is steady and her eyes fix on Vriska's. A shimmer of green reflects off the blade from the distant moon.

"We are supposed to be doing this together! We are a team!" Terezi hears her voice grow, echoing through the cave. Vriska's eyes narrow and she doesn't draw back. "There are plenty of guilty trolls for you. This is unnecessary!" 

"It's not my fault I'm that much better at the game than they are! Besides, you can't just say I'm entirely in the wrong here. Who's to say they aren't guilty of something? Trust me here, they're all super guilty, " Vriska waves a hand dismissively. Her eyes flick down the length of the blade. Terezi does not blink over the rims of her red glasses. She merely narrows her eyes.

"Stop lying! You don't know a thing about them. You just killed them!"

This time Vriska narrows her eyes. She steps forward, drawing her dice from her pockets. Terezi shifts, keeping her blade pointed, but not in contact with Vriska's skin.

Vriska's hair is messy and spills over her shoulders as she moves, around her horns. The ends of it are knots of dirt and leaves. Her face settles into a deep scowl and she takes a deep, menacing breath, sucking all the air from the cave into her lungs.

"And what, you've got the high ground? Look at that idiot you've hauled in here!" Vriska's teeth flare out from her mouth as she spits her words. She cuts her lip and moves on as if it doesn't happen. "You've got no right to come lecture me about killing when you've got a body right behind you!"

"That's justice! That's following the rules!"

"You're so damn focused on those rules! So long as things go by them you're fine with anything!" Vriska steps forward, and Terezi lowers the blade before she can think. Vriska closes the gap between them, blue blood dribbling from her lip. Her eyes burn. Terezi feels her own anger burn in her throat.

By the time Vriska stops, Terezi can count the familiar tiny scars on her face and the loose hairs plastered to her forehead with sweat and blood. The half inch of height between their eyes seems like a thousand feet. Terezi isn't used to this distance when the two of them are this close. It spurs her on.

"You said you'd keep to what we promised. I can get enough trolls for your lusus and we don't have to kill randomly! We're supposed to be a team of vigilantes, bringing justice and law to all the regions-"

"Don't give me that crap, Pyrope!"

(Vriska never breaks character.)

"Are you honestly going to tell me that everyone you've killed is guilty of something awful? Are you going to stand there and tell me every single person you've offed is evil and you're justified and I'm wrong?" 

One finger jabs into Terezi's chest and another points behind her head. Terezi doesn't see what Vriska is pointing to. She does not break eye contact, save for a fleeting look at Vriska's still bleeding lip. 

"Yes," she replies. She lifts her chin half an inch. The gap closes with a rush of silence. There is no room for doubt in Terezi Pyrope's mind, or in her law. Vriska is the one lying. Vriska is the one breaking their rules.

(She quickly runs through the evidence in her mind again, ensuring everything comes out to guilt. She does it twice. A third time. Vriska's words are a heavy weight on the scale. She worries it is heavier than her confidence.)

Time drags. After eternity, Vriska pulls back, gives one final glare, and seats herself back on the first dead troll. She pulls out her dice and begins to examine each one. Carefully. Her eyes narrow and her fingers run over each and every surface.

Terezi hauls her blade behind her as she spins and walks out of the cave. She leaves the troll on the floor. The fresh air outside the cave hits her hard, but she refuses to stumble or look back. Her teeth clink as she grinds them together. The mustard stain still sits along the path she took up, clinging to her boots as she storms off. 

The longer she walks, the more she replays the night in her head. Justice had been served, and Vriska wouldn't convince her otherwise. Vriska clearly didn't want to go by the rules anymore. She just wants to get ahead.

Vriska made too many kills that night.

(Terezi can't believe she still wants to hear the story Vriska had prepared. Her hand can't possibly grip the cane blade any tighter but Terezi tries until her wrist aches and pain shoots up her arm. How many of those games had been lies? How many had they served true justice?) 

(Vriska still came to the meeting spot.)

Terezi decides to give her one last try.

(The scales shift as her heart drops like a stone.)

**Author's Note:**

> The first prompt called for some FLARP day arguments between Vriska and Terezi regarding the morality of their killing and who, exactly, was in the right. There was no way I could pass this chance up.


End file.
